Germany expects to pay out €22bn in COVID-19 relief aid from January through June 2021 to companies and self-employed workers, Reuters reported, citing people close to the matter. Separately, November aid package to compensate firms affected by lockdown measures will this month amount to €14bn, the same sources said. Initially, the government had expected to pay out €10bn.

People entering Slovakia from most EU countries will need a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test that indicates infection with the novel coronavirus from Monday. The test must not be more than 72 hours old, the state health authority announced on Friday evening.

Paris on Friday marked the fifth anniversary of the worst terrorist atrocities in its history, when 130 people were killed in gun and bomb attacks by Islamic State militants at the Bataclan theatre, cafe terraces and the Stade de France stadium, news wires reported.

Austria is investigating 21 people as possible accomplices of the jihadist who went on a deadly shooting rampage in Vienna last week, news wires reported. The 20-year-old Vienna native of Albanian descent armed with an assault rifle, handgun and machete killed four people in a part of the city centre with many bars before being shot dead by police.

Slovenia’s government decided on Thursday to suspend public transport and ban almost all public gatherings for two weeks as its existing shutdown measures have failed to sufficiently contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of France's radical left opposition, on Thursday said he will run in the country's 2022 presidential election, after reaching an online quota of support that he had set.

France's PM Jean Castex said on Thursday the county's lockdown will continue unchanged for at least the next 15 days and cafes, bars and gyms are likely to remain closed for longer. When France went into lockdown for the second time on 30 October, President Emmanuel Macron promised a review of the situation after two weeks.

Lithuania is preparing to turn the largest exhibition centre in Vilnius into a 700-bed makeshift hospital as the city fears its health system may soon get overloaded by coronavirus cases, news wires reported. The Litexpo exhibition centre is the largest in the Baltic states region. The three halls considered for the hospital have a total area of 6,700 square meters.

Police detained more than 300 people after clashes with far-right supporters marching through Warsaw in defiance of pandemic restrictions, news wires reported. Officers in riot gear used pepper spray to break up scuffles during Wednesday’s Independence Day march, a regular point of friction between supporters of the nationalist government on one side, and their liberal opponents on the other.

A key witness against Nicolas Sarkozy has changed his statement and said the former French president did nothing wrong, amid an investigation into allegations he illegally received funds from Libya, news wires reported. French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine said that Sarkozy had received no funds from Libya, in a video published by BFM TV and Paris Match on Wednesday.